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Israel: Illegal Arrest and Incommunicado Detention of Nabil Al-Raee

(SALEM) - Many who keep up on the tragic saga of Palestine know the story of the Freedom Theatre in richly historic Jenin, a place recognized from the Bible, today a refugee camp for Palestinian people.

The reason many people know of this place, is because of a man named Juliano Mehr Khamis, the son of an Israeli mother and a Palestinian father, who took young children whose parents had been killed during Israeli attacks, and taught them to act.

The simple truth is that Juliano and his mother and their supporters gave the children a chance, only to lose the majority of the talented young actors in the Intifada, as Israeli tanks rolled into this fragile neighborhood.

Amazingly, every part of this story is documented in the film 'Arna's Children' (posted below for all to watch) which is nothing less than a masterpiece.

A little more than a year ago, Juliano Khamis was murdered right in front of his wife and small child as he was entering his car. This bright man's legacy, which began in Jenin, spanned to Hollywood, and back to Jenin for the production of the movie included below, 'Arna's Children', ended all too quickly, and the perpetrators, men on a motorcycle with their faces covered, sped off never to be caught or even identified.

Now, the Freedom Theatre appears to be on Israel's hit list for the final chapter, and people all over the world are angry and bitter and planning strategies with hopes of preserving this Palestinian landmark. The facility's director, who is autistic, was hauled away in an Israeli police raid at 3:00 in the morning, which is not unusual here. Now the theatre is unprotected and its myriad supporters are very concerned.

I am William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com.

I am writing to express my serious concern over the illegal arrest and Incommunicado detention of Nabil Al-Raee, the artistic director of the Freedom Theatre by the Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Jenin.

According to the information received “The soldiers came around 3:00 am (0000 GMT). I live upstairs so I came out to see what was happening,” Jonatan Stanczak told AFP.

He found the troupe’s artistic director Nabil al-Raee surrounded by Israeli forces, who refused to say why they were detaining him.

“The only answer you get is a gun in your face. When I went out I had three guns pointing at me, I was half-naked because I didn’t want them to think I had any weapons,” he said.

Nabil’s wife, Micaela Miranda explains what happened: “The dog started barking so I went outside and saw soldiers jumping over the gate and come into the yard of the house. They asked for my husband and I asked what for, that it’s my right to know and it’s my house. The soldiers replied that they were not going to tell me. They then took Nabil, brought him to an army jeep and drove off. We are very worried because we don’t know where they took him and why.”

This is not an isolated case, more than half the employees of The Freedom Theatre were recently called to interrogations by the Israeli army, including Nabil Al-Raee. All came to the appointments as scheduled and answered to their best of their knowledge the given questions even though they were intimidated and even threatened.

The theatre’s Israeli-Palestinian director, Juliano Mer-Khamis, was killed in April 2011 in the city’s refugee camp by an unknown gunman, and since then Israeli troops have arrested several members of the theatre, according to AFP

I am gravely concerned by the use of incommunicado detention through the issuing of Orders Prohibiting Meeting with Counsel by the Israeli authorities, as this represents a violation of the detainees’ rights under international law.

I want to request you undertake the following:

i. take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Nabil Al-Raee

ii. guarantee that he is granted regular and adequate access to legal representation and family visits;

iii. order his immediate release in the absence of valid legal charges, and if such charges exist, to ensure that he is given a prompt and fair trial, in which his procedural rights are guaranteed at all times;

iv. order a thorough and impartial investigation into the circumstances of these events, notably the allegations of torture, in order to identify those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;

v. guarantee the respect of human rights and the fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with international human rights standards.

Salem-News.com Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes is a Bangladeshi journalist, human rights activist and author was born on 25 December, 1985 in Dhaka. As an investigative journalist he wrote widely for leading European and Asian media outlets.

He is also active in advocating for free and independent media and journalists’ rights, and is part of the free media movement, Global Independent Media Center – an activist media network for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate telling of the truth. He worked for Italian news agency Asianews.it from year 2009 to 2011, on that time he was accredited as a free lance journalist by the press information department of Bangladesh. During this time he has reported a notable numbers of reports for the news agency which were translated into Chinese and Italian and quoted by notable number of new outlets all over the world.He, ideologically, identifies himself deeply attached with anarchism. His political views are often characterized as “leftist” or “left-wing,” and he has described himself as an individualist anarchist.

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Anonymous June 8, 2012 5:07 am (Pacific time)

It's always pretty interesting when the suspect becomes the victim. I am sure that Israel has enough evidence of a crime to arrest this guy and question or interrogate the other members. Maybe if our Country would have the balls and act like that with potential terrorists maybe we would not be taken over by Radical Islamists. And maybe Major Hassan would be convicted of several counts of murder and sitting on death row. Your guys should get your stories first and then open your mouth. And how about worrying about the victims for a change?

Editor: You know absolutely nothing about it, you sound like a neo Nazi on the side of Israel, anything goes as long as they say it right? What horseshit.